Functions of Language - Volume 25, Issue 1, 2018

This introduction comprises four main sections. Section 1 introduces the overall theoretical architecture of Systemic Functional Linguistics (hereafter SFL) by way of contextualising the focus on interpersonal grammar in this special issue. Section 2 looks in more detail at the interpersonal discourse semantics underlying this work, briefly introducing the systems of negotiation and appraisal realised through interpersonal grammar. Section 3 turns to the concept of grammatical metaphor, a concept which bears critically on the realisation relationship between interpersonal discourse semantics and lexicogrammar in SFL. Section 4 comments on the challenge of intradisciplinary dialogue.

This paper provides an account of interpersonal resources in Korean from the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistics. The focus is upon the paradigmatic interdependency of addressee deference, mood, stance and politeness, and the syntagmatic interaction of their realisations with polarity, modality, vocation and the participant deference in this language. Specifically, this paper puts two arguments forward. One is that the system of formality is fundamental in Korean. The system has two choices: formal and informal. mood and addressee deference belong to formal resources, and involve power-oriented language use. stance and politeness are informal resources, and involve solidarity-oriented language use. The other argument is that realisations of interpersonal resources are scattered across ranks in Korean. The paper advocates SFL’s top-down paradigmatic perspective, which enables us to pull resources together in an account that formalises their interdependency while respecting their divergent realisations.

In this paper the interpersonal grammar of Tagalog is explored from the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistics. Following a brief metafunctional profile of Tagalog grammar, a framework for interpreting the discourse function of Tagalog clauses is introduced – exchange structure. Subsequently the systems of mood, polarity, modality, tagging, vocation, comment and engagement are considered, alongside their realisation in tone, clause structure and lexical selection. The role played by these interpersonal systems and structure is then illustrated through a brief sample of Tagalog discourse. The paper demonstrates the manner in which a paradigmatic perspective can be used to integrate the description of grammatical resources typically fragmented and marginalised in syntagmatically organised descriptions.

This paper analyses a set of exchanges between members of Australia’s Indigenous Western Desert culture, in the Pitjantjatjara dialect of the Western Desert language. The analyses are designed to illustrate how social relations in the culture are enacted with resources for interpersonal meaning in the language. The paper begins with a brief overview of social and linguistic theory underpinning the analyses. This is followed by a survey of Pitjantjatjara language resources for structuring exchanges, and for realising exchange moves in the grammar of clauses and the tones on which they are spoken. An overview of the Western Desert kinship system is then followed by analyses of five extended exchanges, that show how these resources are deployed to enact various types of kin relations. They illustrate some of the elaborate ways that Western Desert speakers negotiate their relationships and social goals, within the framework of their community’s kinship traditions.

The aim of this paper is to explore reasoning in SFL lexicogrammatical descriptions by focusing on interpersonal clause types organised in the system of mood. To begin, system-structure relations embodied by the theoretical dimension of axis are introduced in relation to the description of imperative, declarative and interrogative clauses in English. The paper then moves to a three-fold perspective on mood distinctions, captured in SFL by the ‘trinocular principle’: interpersonal clause types are first looked at in terms of their contribution to the dialogic negotiation ‘from above’; they are then approached in terms of the paradigmatic environment they define ‘from around’ in close relation to the structural patterns motivating paradigmatic choices ‘from below’. English mood is reconsidered along these lines, and then a different language is used as an illustrative example for the reasoning explored: Spanish. Finally, the paper addresses the implications of the exploration proposed for the description of interpersonal lexicogrammar in Spanish and, more generally, for SFL descriptive work across languages.

The aim of this paper is to explore possible connections between ‘grammatical metaphor’ and ‘grammaticalization’, especially with a view to identifying synergies and fostering cross-fertilization of insights between SFL and ‘grammaticalization theory’. After a characterization of the concepts of grammatical metaphor and grammaticalization, it is argued that the two notions are intricately connected. Their connection is explored at two levels: a theoretical-conceptual and a descriptive level. At the theoretical-conceptual level, it is argued that metaphoricity and codification are two sides of the same coin, providing complementary perspectives on synchronic variation and diachronic ‘change’, which can be deconstructed if one changes the time depth or the angle of the perspective. At the descriptive level it is shown that interpersonal grammatical metaphors can be seen as a breeding ground for grammaticalization. Aspects of the syntagmatic nature of interpersonal metaphors are identified as bridging contexts for their grammaticalization into expressions of epistemic assessment, and two grammaticalization paths are identified on the basis of interacting vectors of grammaticalization and metaphoricity, viz. a path into discourse markers and one into epistemic adverbials.